1984

I've taken to rereading Orwell's 1984 recently, and I've gained a new perspective on the matter. I remember reading it years ago and not quite getting it, because I didn't quite have an interest in the subject of how authoritarian systems work, and thus read it more like your average novel. After going through it in more detail this time, I've come to realize just how much thought went into the novel's creation, and how well Orwell actually understood authoritarianism. More interestingly, the concepts have stood the test of time disturbingly well and become quite prevalent in the recent years, albeit in a somewhat different form.

Interestingly, while Ingsoc in the book promises the equitable distribution of wealth while concentrating it amongst the select few, the capitalist system of today does the exact same thing while promising to increase the wealth of all. Where Ingsoc winds up brainwashing everyone into mindlessly accepting the system despite having to engage in doublethink, people in capitalist societies are made to accept this inequality simply because they are taught that there is no suitable substitute. People simply stop thinking about alternatives.

Given the general degeneration of democracy in today's world, the interconnectedness of the internet forcing people to think about how much of their information leaks all over the place and the omnipresence of monitoring devices, arguably the world of 1984 exists in a mutated form today. Media has become our panopticon, where citizens are being watched over by fellow citizens in a sort of self-inflicted thought police. Governments claim to be disadvantaged and disempowered by the internet, while using the same reasoning to increase their own control through heavily regulating media. And wealth distribution is extremely unequal. How, then, is this not 1984? Has Oceania truly always been at war?